The wall pipe is adapted to preplacement in the wall with the flange portion rigidly attached in preselected position. Prior to the wall being formed or cast to provide a mechanical joint with the wall pipe, the pipe having a projecting radial flange is aligned in place to provide the connection between a pair of pipes which extend to or into opposite sides of the wall.
Mechanical joint wall pipes or sleeves are normally cast to a wide range of specifications depending upon the wall thickness and the diameter of pipe to be connected or accommodated. In such practice it is required that a large inventory of such wall pipes or sleeves be maintained by the building contractor in view of the large numbers of combinations which are possible due to varying wall thicknesses and surface pipe diameters. Such wall joints must normally be flanged to provide structural integrity between the wall and the interconnecting pipe or sleeve once the wall is formed, to prevent seepage of water and gases along the interface between the pipe and the masonry wall.
It is necessary that a reliable fluid-tight seal be effected between the pipe and the masonry wall through which the pipe passes.
Previously the prior art has required that many different sizes and shapes of mechanical-joint wall pipes be made available having an intermediate flange for mounting interiorly of the wall. Various attempts to minimize such large inventories of wall sizes are found in the prior art such as U.S. Pat. No. 4,071,265 to Wallace which relates to a threaded mechanical joint wall sleeve comprising a cylindrical member having opposite ends with inside and outside flanged surfaces. A pair of threaded end members or adaptors is threadably secured to the exterior or interior surfaces of opposite ends of the cylindrical member and is adapted to attachment to opposite sides of the wall.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,063,759 to Steimle discloses a water barrier to prevent seepage past pipes installed through a masonry wall. Such a barrier comprises a tubular sleeve encircled by flanges having a fluid-tight fit with the pipe along a portion thereof embedded in and sealed to an impervious coating on the wall surface. Such water barrier sleeves are of particular utility for water circulating and drainage pipes installed within the walls and bottoms of masonry swimming pools, but are not particularly useful for other applications in building construction.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,564,372 to Phelps relates to flanged articles and especially to methods of attaching flanges to articles such as pipes, valves and wheel hubs. In such a method the tubular member is formed in cup-shape with a beveled edge which is flattened while positioned within a radial wall of a pre-formed groove in the central element.
Such adaptive wall sleeves are considerably more complex than the present invention and do not lend themselves to preplacement in the wall area prior to its formation or casting to form a durable mechanical connection.
Therefore, it is a principal object of this invention to provide a flanged wall pipe or sleeve for masonry walls which utilizes a positionable rigidly attached flange for permanent interconnection with the wall structure. The subject structure of wall pipe provides both a water and gas barrier to prevent transmittal of the fluids past pipes installed in a masonry wall. The subject pipe is useful for both above-ground and underground installations in a wide range of operating environments.
A further object of this invention is to provide a wall pipe or sleeve having a rigidly attachable separate flange member to be mounted in a preselected lateral area to permit substantial reduction in the inventory of such wall pipe over that normally required.
A still further object of the invention is to provide a flanged wall pipe or sleeve in which the separately-formed flange may be interconnected to the pipe by various means to provide rigid durable interconnection whether the pipe be formed of metal or plastic materials. The subject wall pipe may be fabricated in the field from regular lengths of pipe having the desired end configurations, the flanged portion being attached to the pipe in permanent precise location laterally by various forms of attachment for mounting of such portion interiorly of the wall.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a method of forming a flanged wall pipe for wall installation from a length of regular pipe having a generally uniform exterior diameter to permit substantial reduction in pipe inventory and in-the-field forming as desired or required.
The foregoing objects and certain additional advantages which may be attained in the flanged article illustrated in the accompanying drawings and embodying the invention is described hereinbelow.